According to the Sunflower State Journal, budget writers for the Kansas House of Representatives have agreed to set aside $1 million to compensate nurses for “nonclinical harms” caused by the Kansas State Board of Nursing.
“The House Appropriations Committee agreed to create the Nurse Fair Treatment and Recovery Fund for nurses who file claims against the state believing they were wrongly treated by the nursing board in a way unrelated to treating patients,” the Journal reported. “Those harms would be related to licensing, professional standing or status and income.”
According to the Journal, nurses have been complaining that the agency has pressured them into signing consent decrees acknowledging “unprofessional conduct” over clerical errors that had no bearing on patient health or safety.
This includes nurses like Amy Siple who is challenging one of those orders.
Siple took a pause in her practice to care for her husband who had been diagnosed with metastatic cancer.
“I was terrified and devastated,” she told the Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee in March of last year. “I had taken a step back from practice and just focused on living this journey with him. After his surgery and stabilization, I was ready to go back to work. I got on the State Board of Nursing website, and much to my dismay, I saw that my license had expired four and a half months earlier.”
Siple said in her 32 years of practice, she had never before been late in renewing her license; she had also never been sued or investigated for disciplinary action.
According to Siple, in order for a nurse practitioner to renew their license in Kansas, they must meet three criteria: they must be current on their malpractice insurance, current on their continuing education hours, and pay their dues.
“Fortunately for me, I always have way more education than I need, and all of my hours were current prior to the expiration deadline, and I’ve never let my malpractice insurance expire,” Siple said. “I submitted evidence of this, and I paid my dues, and I expected to pay a fine, a late fee.
“I did not anticipate the discipline that was coming my way.”
In a phone interview, Siple said that shortly after sending in her information to renew her license, she received calls from officials at the Board of Nursing asking questions about her activities. Siple said she did not realize that she was under investigation.
Siple was speaking at conferences and to senior centers about dementia, but had not provided any care.
According to Siple, the board of nursing informed her that she was “not qualified” to provide that information because her license had lapsed.
The Board of Nursing has “asked” — while threatening dire consequences should she refuse — Siple to sign a consent agreement that would label her as “unprofessional” in three separate nursing databases for “practicing without a license” in perpetuity.
For Siple — and nurses like her — this would be a career-ender. Siple said that “unprofessional” was the worst label a nurse could receive and that just being under investigation has already cost her employment opportunities.
Siple said she believes this is retaliation for her outspoken stance on COVID lockdowns.
“The State Board of Nursing expressed a desire to come after nurses who spoke against the mandates; what I spoke out primarily against was the lockdown of senior citizens in long-term care facilities,” Siple said. “I was vocal. I spoke in the House. I spoke in the Senate. I talked about the unintended, I hope, the unintended consequences of solitary confinement, isolation, and immobility in older adults.”
According to the Journal, The Pacific Legal Foundation, which defends against government “overreach and abuse,” is assisting Siple in her appeal.
State Board of Nursing threatened nurse over social media posting
Siple is hardly the first nurse allegedly targeted for her views.
Registered Nurse Elaine Gebhardt, in October 2024, received notice she was under investigation by the State Board of Nursing, alleging she had been using social media to attack the transgender population and to debase healthcare processes.
Despite the fact that her employer had not raised any objection to her social media postings, the State Board of Nursing stepped in.
“The Board of Nursing got involved because people from X had submitted a report stating I was being transphobic, racist, discriminatory, and was refusing patient care,” Gebhardt said. “None of which I had done.”
After reporting by the Sentinel, the Board declined to take any action.
Republican state Rep. Kristey Williams of Augusta said the goal is to ensure not only that Kansas has the best nurses, but also that they are not overregulated.
“We want to maintain the requirements to have the best nurses available, but we also want to ensure that we’re not unintentionally making it more difficult for them to maintain their occupation because of undue regulations,” Williams told the Journal in an interview.
According to the Journal, Rep. Sean Tarwater, (R-Stilwell), wants the State Board of Nursing to go back and clear all consent orders for all nurses resulting from licenses lapsing because of clerical errors, problems with the nursing board website or instances where someone forgot to renew over the last five years.
“I would like to see the Board of Nursing do what they’re supposed to do. They need to work for the nurses, not against the nurses,” Tarwater said.
